Tony Parker played more than 40 minutes and had 17 points and 3 assists despite dealing with a sore left calf in Sunday's Game 4 loss to the Warriors. Edward A. Ornelas / San Antonio Express-News

Tony Parker played more than 40 minutes and had 17 points and 3...

OAKLAND, Calif. — The knot in Spurs guard Tony Parker's left calf had shrunk to less-than-baseball size by tipoff time, so the decision for him to play in Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Warriors was easy.

Finding ways for him to be effective while dealing with lingering pain and stiffness was another matter.

Parker made only 6 of 17 shots and had only three assists in a 97-87 overtime loss that tied the best-of-7 series at two games apiece.

Afterwards, he acknowledged that the sore calf affected his play.

“I felt like I was limited a little bit, but nobody cares,” he said. “It's the playoffs. You have to keep playing.

Parker expressed confidence he will feel more like himself for Game 5 on Tuesday at the AT&T Center, in part because the early start on Sunday allowed the Spurs to arrive back in San Antonio in time to get a good night's sleep. Also, he will be able to get more treatment on the calf on Monday morning.

“We'll be at home,” he said. “Our crowd's going to push us. Hopefully we can shoot the ball a little better.”

Stepping up: The Warriors got a career-high scoring game from a second player in the series and Spurs coach Gregg Popovich took notice.

Rookie Harrison Barnes had 26 points to lead the Warriors in scoring on Sunday. Second-year guard Klay Thompson scored a career-high 34 points in Golden State's Game 2 victory on Wednesday.

“When other people step up that's always a great thing in these games,” Popovich said. “Usually the teams that win in the playoffs have other people step up at some point in the series.”

Bogut bangs back: The Spurs again opted to intentionally foul Warriors center Andrew Bogut, a 50 percent free thrower during the regular season, during Game 4, but were only able to do so once. He made one of his two foul shots.

When they tried to foul Bogut a second time late in the third period, the Warriors called time out before Parker could grab him.

Bogut, who insists he has no problem with Popovich's use of the tactic, just smiled when asked if he enjoyed watching the Spurs miss 11 of their 25 free throws in Game 4, shooting a season-low 56 percent.